Palacký University in Olomouc Philosophical

Arda

Tolkien’s world is called Arda and he even wrote a whole story about its creation, named Ainulindalë – The Music of the Ainur. This story was later published in The Silmarillion as the very first story of the book. Arda was originally created through the music of the Ainur, instructed by Ilúvatar, for his “children” – meaning Elves and men. After its creation it was flat and symmetrical, perfect, but through the ages the wars between Valar and Melkor (and later Elves and Sauron as well) ruined its symmetricity. Some lands were destroyed and vanished in the ocean, some new continents were created.

The biggest change of its shape happened at the end of the Second Age when Númenóreans – men from the island Númenor gifted with longer lives than other men – rebelled against the Valar and the Elves, because they were jealous of their immortality. This caused Valar to seek the help of Ilúvatar and he intervened. He moved the continents and seas, sank the island of Númenor and most importantly rounded Arda and removed Aman, the home of Valar, from the physical world. Since that day Arda looks the way we know it from The Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien provided his readers with detailed maps of the Middle Earth, the central place for his hobbit stories, but unfortunately no other continents besides it.



⁴⁹ John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, The Letters, No. 211, 298.
⁵⁰ “EW interview: George R.R. Martin talks ‘A Dance With Dragons’.“
From the edges of the maps and brief mentions we know that the lands south of Gondor and Mordor are named Harad and Khand and the lands in the further East are called Rhûn, but not much geographical information is given on them. Rhûn is described in The Fellowship of the Ring as “wide uncharted lands, nameless plains, and forests unexplored” ⁵¹ and speaking of the South, we only get a small note concerning “apes in the dark forests of the South”, ⁵² suggesting probability rainforests or jungles.

1.